


The Return of Charlie and Luis

by Slytherin_Princess_Nysa



Series: Charlie & Luis [1]
Category: NCIS
Genre: Charlie and Luis, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Ellick, F/M, Feelings, Idiots in Love, Late Night Conversations, Love Confessions, Making Out, Rough Kissing, Touchy-Feely, Undercover, Undercover as a Couple
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-05
Updated: 2020-02-05
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:53:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22504333
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Slytherin_Princess_Nysa/pseuds/Slytherin_Princess_Nysa
Summary: With a new drug circulating and three enlisted men dead under its belt, Nick convinces Gibbs to let Luis have a crack at dismantling the drug ring.And where Luis goes, Charlie is sure to follow.
Relationships: Ellie Bishop & Nick Torres, Ellie Bishop/Nick Torres
Series: Charlie & Luis [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1624615
Comments: 9
Kudos: 119





	The Return of Charlie and Luis

**Author's Note:**

> I've fallen in a hole of Ellick and I'll never get out
> 
> The dress in this is inspired by something that happened to me. I was in Europe and I packed the wrong dress and ended up looking like a stripper so I thought 'hey, I'm going to put Ellie in it and torture Nick' because I'm evil.

“No.” Ellie shook her head, adamant that she wouldn’t go down this rabbit hole again. “Absolutely not, Nick.”

Nick pushed away from her kitchen counter and rounded it to come towards her. Ellie lowered the heat on the stove and checked the cheese sauce one last time before leaving it to simmer. “Come on, it was fun last time.”

“Which part was fun for you?” Ellie handed him the set of silverware and pointed him towards the dining table. “Having to fake a drug addict's death and then blackmail her to help us, the boat explosion we barely survived, or maybe it was the bit where you got held up at gunpoint and had to drive into a wall?”

“Ellie, please?” Nick moved behind her, bringing the salad bowl over from the counter and took his regular seat at her table.

“Or was it the part where I was a hooker and you were my pimp turned boyfriend.” she laughed while pulling the lasagna out of the oven. Spooning each of them a hearty helping and pouring sauce over the lasagna, Ellie turned towards the table.

Nick reached out for his plate and dug in, talking around a forkful. Ellie smiled at his appetite, he always seemed to enjoy her cooking. “All of it! We make a good team.”

“You’re crazy.” she said, sitting across from him. “We can’t go undercover again, we have an ongoing case!”

“Going undercover is for the case. There’s three people dead, El, and who knows how many more will overdose if I don’t go.” Ellie looked at him doubtfully and Nick sighed. “I already convinced Gibbs and Vance to let me go into the club tomorrow night.”

Ellie coughed and dropped her fork, “You what? You can’t go in there alone!”

“Which is why I’m asking you to come with me. Be the Charlie to my Luis?”

“Fine, Charlie and Luis are back in action,” she huffed. “But only because you’re my best friend and I’d feel guilty if you got hurt and I wasn’t there.”

“Awe,” Nick cooed mockingly. “You care about me.”

Ellie rolled her eyes and tossed a bread roll at him. It was true, she did care about him.

Over the last few months, their days had come to a comfortable, almost entirely too domestic pattern.

Nick and Ellie would spend all day at the Navy Yard and when they got off the clock, they would choose one of their apartments for dinner and movies. Normally they would order in because they’d be too drained after work, but on the rare occasion they had some energy left over, one of them would cook. Then they would fight over what to watch, even though they would usually fall asleep on the couch halfway through. Ellie didn’t think much of it when she’d wake up in bed every morning with Nick gone and their day would start again.

It was nice to always know what she would be doing with her days and Ellie loved having a schedule. Nick was a constant in her life and Ellie found him a comforting presence.

“Ellie?” she snapped her eyes up to him.

“Were you saying something?”

Nick glanced down at her full plate and then down at his empty one. Ellie pushed the plate away, not as hungry anymore. “If you can’t go under again, I understand. More than anyone, I know how shit like that can affect you. Taking on a new identity, becoming someone else, even for a few days. I can go alone.”

“No,” she shook her head before he could even finish. “I’m not letting you go alone. And you’re right, it wasn’t so bad.”

_Nothing like you’ve been through_.

It wasn’t that their small stunt undercover had caused anything psychological - it was the anxiety that got to her. When they had lost contact with Nick, a terrible thought had crossed her mind. If he died, if godforbid, Nick died, Ellie didn’t know what she would do. He was her partner, especially when they were undercover. Then she was all the backup he had. And if he had died while he was Luis and she was Charlie, it would have been because she couldn’t protect her best friend. Her fault. And that wasn’t something Ellie could live with.

“Go team.” he chuckled. Nick stood up and started cleaning the table while Ellie set up the snacks and candy for the movie. “Popcorn?”

“Of course, we aren’t animals.” She scrolled through her iTunes library and pulled up a movie, calling over her shoulder. “How about 21 Jump Street?”

Nick sat next to her, propping his feet up on her table and leaning against her shoulder. He rolled his eyes at her, “You’re hilarious.”

“I know, thank you for noticing.”

They relaxed into the couch, munching on the tableful of junk food Ellie had brought out. Nick loved going to her place because she had the best snacks. She reached for the bacon brown sugar chips and Nick scrunched up his nose but had one out of curiosity.

“Why do you do that?”

“Do what?” he gulped down half his beer to wash out the taste.

She shook the bag of chips in her lap. “Eat things you don’t like?”

Nick shrugged, “You like them. Maybe one day I’ll understand why.”

“That’s sweet but don’t make yourself throw up again.”

“Hey! That was completely different!” he said defensively, pointing at her. “Nutella does not belong on bacon sandwiches and you tricked me into trying it. It’s not my fault I couldn’t handle the weird combination you put together.”

Ellie scoffed, “It was fine, you’re just a baby.”

“It was not!” Ellie shoved a pillow into his chest and Nick groaned dramatically. “It was chocolate dipped bacon with mayo and tomato.” he stressed.

He grabbed the pillow and hit her back gently, “I can’t believe you’re abusing me like this. I thought we were friends! Between this and that sandwich, remind me why I stick around?”

“Because I’m your partner,” she smiled, popping another chip in her mouth.

* * *

“Are you sure about this?” Jack handed her the wire.

“Yeah,” she tried to sound nonchalant. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

Jack held up the outfit Ellie had bought for tonight, turning the shimmering fabric in her hands and glancing at Ellie with her eyebrows high and eyes wide. “Right and this?”

“Abby helped me pick it out over FaceTime. My idea was more-” she waved her hands vaguely at the dress. “Well, more.”

“I’m sure you’ll pull it off,” Jack handed her the dress and walked around her office. “So the whole mission is just get in, waste some time with Nick, break into the club owners office, copy some files and then get out?”

Ellie nodded, jumping slightly to make sure the wire was well taped to her chest. “Nothing out of the usual, or so Nick tells me. I’m still new to this whole undercover thing.”

Jack hummed behind her and Ellie turned her head in question. Jack was looking at her curiously before she shook her head and moved towards the door. “I’ll let you get changed.”

Once Jack was gone, Ellie quickly stripped out of her work clothes, folding them and leaving them on one of the chairs. She pulled the dress over her head and very decidedly regretted her decision to let Abby pick her clothes.

It was too short and too tight. And no matter how Ellie tried to rearrange the fabric, something was showing. She would either pull it down to cover her ass or yank it up to cover her breasts. Ellie covered her, no doubt red, face.

“Oh no, no, no.” she shook her head. “Abby, I’m going to kill you.”

“Ellie?” Jack called through the door and knocked before cracking the door slightly and peeking around the corner. “Are you- oh my god.”

Ellie turned, blonde hair flying around her face. She looked down at the dress and her bare feet, self consciously curling in on herself. “I know! What the hell do I do? I cannot go down those stairs-” she pointed towards the door while Jack closed it behind her. “And face my coworkers looking like- like-”

“Someone’s daydream?” she laughed and Ellie pouted at her friend.

“Not funny, hand me my jacket and the show box?” She shrugged on the coat and hastily buttoning it up and took comfort when it brushed midthigh, going past the dress complete. Jack reached out to steady her while Ellie slipped on the heels.

“Can you even run in these?” she looked down at Ellie’s feet and the handful of added on inches she was wearing.

Ellie shrugged, letting go of Jack. “If we have to run, I’ll just kick them off.”

“Practical.”

“In a dress like this, how can I not be?” she said dryly.

Jack sat at the corner of her desk, looking at Ellie as she tried to comb her hair out with her fingers. “Ellie, I read the report from your last undercover mission with Torres.”

She straightened up her coat and used the little mirror to check her makeup. It was more heavy handed than she would normally wear but it was good enough for Charlie. “Good read?”

“I couldn’t help but think you guys left something out of the report,” Ellie’s fingers froze where she was readjusting her cuff.

She cleared her throat, “Why do you think that?”

“All your reports have a nice flow to them, but that one had this little dip, like you erased and rewrote a part of it. I can’t explain it exactly but that reaction is telling me I’m right, what was it?” she asked.

Ellie sighed and slowly walked to the chair in front of Jack, taking a seat gingerly. “Are you asking as a therapist or a friend?”

“Friend.” Jack dropped down into her chair and leaned forward.

“We kissed. Nick and I.” she tried to ignore the smile growing on Jack’s face and the bright flush lighting up her own. “In the store we were acting like a couple and it was, you know, natural. I just leaned over and- you know, kissed him.”

“So you kissed him? Not the other way around?”

“Well, yeah. It was just a split second thing.” Ellie didn’t mention that even a simple press of Nick’s lips against hers had sent a warm and pleasant buzz all the way down to the tips of her toes, a feeling that hadn’t gone away for hours.

“What was it like?”

“It was nice…” Jack pushed her shoulder, clearly unhappy with that answer. “He’s my best friend and my partner. I trust him with my life and I’d do anything for him but that’s it.”

“That’s it?”

“That’s it.” Ellie stood up, grabbing the bundle of clothes and pocketing her wallet and phone before turning towards the door. “And I’ve got to go, it’s almost ten and the club opens in an hour. See you tomorrow.”

“Have fun!”

Ellie hurried down the stairs towards the rest of the team. She couldn’t see Nick anywhere in the bullpen. But Gibbs and Tim were looking at the board, Tim pointing out something about the owner.

“If they go into the office while he’s doing his 2am rounds. Even his personal security follow Viktor out so it won’t be guarded. They just need to pick the lock, grab the documents and come out to the van. Should be easy.” Tim was saying and Ellie found herself studying the floorplan on the board just in case.

“McGee, I’ve seen supposedly easy ops go very wrong. I want you to put at least two agents in the club as backup.” Gibbs commanded.

“I’ll try, Boss, but we barely got Bishop and Torres on the list for tonight.” Gibbs gave him a look and Tim went straight for his computer. “I’m on it.”

Ellie looked between them but her eyes slid back to the floorplan. The office was down a narrow hallway, nowhere near the bathrooms or any other excusable place if they were caught sneaking around. She noticed a little notch in the corner, a supply closet probably. She supposed they could hide in there if things went south.

“Where’s Nick?” she glanced down at her wrist watch. “We should get going.”

“He went off to preen.” Tim said distractedly, typing away at his computer. “He’s been in there for the last half an hour.”

“I do not preen.” Nick came around the corner, straightening out his leather jacket. Ellie bit her lip when he did a slow circle to show off. “I was changing into Luis.”

“If anyone else said that, I’d be concerned, Torres.” Gibbs clipped on his badge and gun. “Let’s go. We have a job to do.”

Ellie followed them out to the parking lot, hugging herself tightly to keep the chill out. She dreaded the moment when she would have to leave the jacket. Nick held the door to his car open with a smile and Ellie slipped in quickly, trying to escape the cold.

“You look nice.” Ellie glanced down at the beige coat and black heels. “I like the messy hair and overcoat look.”

“I look like a strippergram.” she muttered.

Nick burst out laughing, gripping the steering wheel. “A stripper what?”

“You know!” Ellie twisted in the seat, turning to him with an expectant expression on her face. “One of those women who show up to your doorstep with a coat and nothing else and it’s a big sexual fantasy for people.”

He shook his head, a broad smile still over his face. “I don’t know about my fantasies, but that’s definitely one of yours.”

“It is not!”

“Sure sounds like it is.”

She reached over and shoved his shoulder playfully, “It does not!”

For the rest of the drive to the club, Ellie relaxed against the seat. She felt Nick’s hand rest over hers on the armrest, their fingers lacing together and she turned to him questioningly. “We should get in character, right, Charlie?”

Ellie grinned. “Right, Luis.”

They stopped on the curb in front of the nightclub and Nick pulled his hand away from hers. Ellie squeezed her fingers into a fist, absolutely not thinking about how her hand suddenly felt cold. As he rounded the car, Ellie unbuttoned her jacket and breathed out a calming breath before taking it off, mentally slipping into Charlie.

Nick opened her door, head tilted to the entrance and Ellie stepped out of the car. Her hands itched to pull down the dress but Charlie wouldn’t do that. Charlie owned the space, whichever space she was in. Tonight, it was a club downtown and she had a job to do.

“As a wise woman once said to me,” Nick stares at her - from her loose hair, agonizingly down to her bare legs. “Woof.”

“Funny,” she glanced down at herself. “How do I look, seriously?”

“Gorgeous. Fantastic.” his voice was rough and Ellie felt his eyes slide down her body. Nick cleared his throat, “Charlie.”

Ellie tucked herself in his side and Nick guided her towards the entrance. She pressed herself tightly against him and breathed in the scent of his aftershave, her nose brushing his neck. They stopped in front of the bouncer, he was at least twice Nick’s size and with an almost permanent frown as he studied them.

Her hand dipped inside his jacket and she leaned up until her warm breath washed over his ear. “Baby,” she faked a pout for the bouncer. “Isn’t there something you could do? I wanna dance and you know how dancing makes me…” she kissed the little spot behind his ear. “Hot.”

Nick hastily reached into his back pocket to pull out an a hundred, acting out a too practiced (in her opinion) move of handing off the money in a faux handshake. The much larger man stepped to the side to let them in, patting Nick on the shoulder as they passed.

“Nicely played,” he whispered and Ellie barely heard him over the thumping music. He tapped at his ear piece. “McGee, you hear me?”

Ellie glanced around the club, from the blinding bright lights to the mess of sweaty bodies grinding and moving against each other on the dance floor. It was a little comforting for Ellie to see that her dress wasn’t the shortest in the room. The bar was crowded, women waving bills towards the bartender, hoping to get a cold drink in return.

Craning her head, Ellie could see the dark curtain covering the corridor leading to the office. Nick led her into the fray, bouncing people surrounding them quickly and Nick kept his hand over the small of her back. Ellie turned to face the hallway, back pressing tightly against Nick’s chest and his hands dropped to her waist.

Getting lost in the music, Ellie threw her head back to rest against his shoulder as she moved to the beat. She always loved dancing and Nick was a natural. He moved smoothly behind her and Ellie wrapped her hands around his wrists, tugging his arms closer.

When he was this close to her and she could feel him against her, breathing on her neck and his arms holding her so tightly…Ellie thought that maybe there was something more between her and Nick. Or there could be if one of them finally decided to do something about the loaded tension between them.

Ellie didn’t know how long they moved against each other or when his face had suddenly moved so close to hers, chin resting on her collarbone. Her hand reached up, almost like it had a mind of its own, grabbing onto the short strands at the nape of his neck.

Her eyes drifted closed for a moment before she registered the man and his guards coming out from behind the curtain. Her head snapped up and Nick jolted behind her, arms tightening protectively over her stomach.

“We should…” her voice was rough and she cleared her throat. “He’s at the bar right now so we should go into the office.”

She felt Nick nod mutely against her shoulder and they slipped through the crowd, dipping behind the curtain without being spotted. They hurried to the door at the end of the hall and Ellie pushed at the handle. Finding it locked, she moved to the side to let Nick through.

He bent down, pulling the little lockpicking set out of his pocket and jiggling the metal picks into the lock. “I didn’t know you could dance.”

Ellie stared at the curtain, looking between it and the closer further down the hall. She shrugged at him, “I don’t go out much.”

“We should go out together, outside of work, I mean.” The door popped open and Nick grinned at her before slipping inside. “We could hit that new restaurant a few blocks down from your place. I heard they have the best mac and cheese in DC.”

Ellie pointed at the file cabinet behind the desk where he was chiming open the drawers. “Try those. It’s called Angelos, they open at six so we can go for breakfast after we get the documents we need. Look under the stuff on the desk.”

“Mac and cheese for breakfast?A woman after my own heart.” he lifted the keyboard and stack of papers, holding up a flashdrive inbetween his fingers. “Got it. Let’s get the hell out of here before they come back.”

Just as Nick finished locking the door behind him the curtain was yanked open and Viktor came into the hallway, yelling at his bodyguard about something. Panicking, Ellie thought on her feet and reached out to grab Nick. He came easily and Ellie felt the cold press of the wall against her bare back and the heat of his chest against hers.

“What do we do?” he hissed under his breath.

“Nick, kiss me.” his eyes darkened and fell down to her lips. In the back of her mind she knew she should be calling him ‘Luis’, should stay in their undercover personas but she didn’t want to kiss him again when she was Charlie and he was Luis. Her tongue swiped at her lip and her fingers pulled at his jacket. “Kiss me.”

He surged forward, lips pressing against hers in a flurry.

Ellie was a naturally calm and cautious person. She didn’t like PDA and found it unnecessary, it was one of the things that annoyed Jake when they had been together. She never did anything crazy or wild either, not when she was a teenager and certainly not as an adult. But kissing Nick made her want to lose control. He always brought out new things in her and this was no exception.

Boiling heat flashed over her and Ellie felt an animalistic moan crawl up her throat when his fingers knotted in her hair. Her arms wrapped around his neck, teeth gnawing at his bottom lip until her tongue could sweep inside. It was like a fire had been lit in her chest, his taste driving them into a frenzy. Nick’s hands bunched up the fabric at her thighs, gripping her tightly as he lifted her up and pressing her against the wall.

Nick held onto her like a lifeline.

Ellie’s legs locked around his waist, nails digging into his shoulders. He groaned and Ellie couldn’t believe how good he felt against hers.

He moved away a fraction and Ellie’s arms and legs gripped him harder. She kissed him desperately, melting against the feeling of his lips, his tongue, his touch. It felt like everything was right as long as he was in her arms. Kissing her, touching her, just being with her.

Nick pulled at her hair and Ellie bit at his lip in revenge. Chuckling against her mouth, he pulled away with a smile, bruise kissed lips stretched widely and Ellie found him breathtaking. Looking between his eyes, Ellie leaned forward to press a quick kiss to each of his cheeks and chin, feeling his breathy laugh all the way down to her toes.

“What the hell is this?” Nick pulled away with a start and Ellie dropped to her feet, half hidden behind his shoulder. “Who in the damn hell let these people in here? This is my private hall! What do I pay you morons for?”

“Sorry, man.” Nick was saying, but all Ellie could hear was the harsh beating of his heart against her hand. “We got wrapped up in the music and I thought I’d take my girl somewhere,” he glanced at her and she could see the hunger still there. “Private.”

“I don’t give a damn, get the hell out of here!” Viktor waved his hand. “Go home.”

Nick grabbed her hand and they hurried out of the club. They jumped into Nick’s car and Ellie watched him as he told McGee that they had the flashdrive and they’d look through it in the morning. Nick glanced at her as he said his goodbyes and pulled out the earpiece, dropping it into the cupholder as the car started down the street.

“So,” he drawled out.

“So.” she mirrored.

“Am I the only one who felt like what happened in the corridor wasn’t entirely,” he glanced at her nervously and Ellie felt her breath catch in her throat as she waited for him to continue. “Charlie and Luis?”

The car rounded the next stoplight and Ellie recognized the streets as they headed to her apartment. “No,” his face fell and Ellie hurried to finish. “I mean, no, it wasn’t just you. I feel something for you too.”

Nick reached over the armrest and gently slipped his fingers between hers and Ellie knew this wasn’t Charlie and Luis, this was Nick and Ellie. It was genuine and more real than anything she could remember feeling.

“El?” she hummed, thumb circling his knuckles rhythmically. “Tomorrow when we go for breakfast. Would you want to make it a date?”

She smiled gently when he brought their joined hands up to his lips and pressed a sweet kiss to her fingers. “I would love that.”

When they pulled up to her apartment, Nick leaned over and Ellie smiled against his lips before slipping out of the car. “I’ll see you soon, babe.”

She tried to look stern but a smile twitched at her lip, “Don’t call me babe!”

“Babe!” he sangsong.

“I’ll see you in a few hours,” she said before shutting the door. Ellie smiled at herself as she headed up to her apartment, mumbling to herself. “Babe…”


End file.
